Coach JP at 50 doing the Atlas Carry during the 2024 Spartan Race Kelowna Ultra
Strength After 40: How to Build It, Keep It, and Avoid Injuries Doing It
By the time we hit our 40s (and I can say this from personal experience, now in my 50s) we start to notice subtle changes in our bodies. Recovery takes longer, the little aches and pains hang around a bit more, and our strength doesn’t quite match what it used to be, especially if training hasn’t been consistent.
I’ve seen this not only in my own training but also while working with countless clients over the years, some well into their 70s and beyond. The patterns are clear: the body changes, but with the right approach you can build strength, maintain it for decades, and dramatically reduce your risk of injury. It comes down to training smart, playing the long game, and respecting how our bodies adapt at this stage of life.
None of this means we’re “over the hill.” In fact, this is one of the most important times to double down on strength training. With the right approach, you can build strength, maintain it for decades to come, and dramatically reduce your risk of injury. The key is training smart, playing the long game, and respecting how our bodies adapt at this stage of life.
Why Strength After 40 Matters More Than Ever
From our mid-30s onward, our bodies naturally begin to change. Without intervention, we lose muscle mass and strength at a slow but steady rate (typically 3-8% per decade) and this decline can accelerate into sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) in our 50s and beyond. Sarcopenia affects far more than appearance; it impacts balance, mobility, and independence.
Alongside muscle loss, bone density starts to decrease. This process, called osteopenia, can eventually lead to osteoporosis if left unchecked, increasing fracture risk from relatively minor falls. Weight-bearing and resistance exercises are two of the most effective tools we have to slow or even reverse this trend.
Metabolism also shifts. As lean muscle tissue decreases, our basal metabolic rate drops, making it easier to gain fat and harder to maintain a healthy weight on the same calorie intake that worked in our 20s. Hormonal changes (such as gradual declines in testosterone, growth hormone, and oestrogen) further influence muscle preservation, fat distribution, and recovery.
That’s the bad news. The good news?
These changes aren’t a reason to throw in the towel, they’re a call to action. With targeted, progressive strength training, you can slow these processes to a crawl or even reverse some effects. Studies consistently show that people in their 40s, 50s, and beyond can gain muscle mass, increase bone density, and improve functional strength with the right approach. These benefits go far beyond muscle size:
Everyday function — Lifting, carrying, climbing, bending… all feel easier when you’re strong.
Bone density — Resistance and impact-based training protect against osteoporosis.
Metabolic health — More muscle means a healthier metabolic rate and better blood sugar regulation.
Joint stability and balance — Less risk of falls, trips, and other avoidable injuries.
Longevity and quality of life — The stronger you are, the more capable and independent you remain.
As I noted in Train for the Life You Want, Not Just the Body You Miss, your training should be building the body that will let you live the life you want (whether that’s playing with your kids or grandkids, travelling, or climbing mountains), not just chasing a number on the bar.
Build It: Laying a Strong Foundation
If you’re new (or coming back) to strength training after 40, your priority isn’t maxing out in the first month, it’s building a resilient foundation.
Start slow and give your connective tissues time to adapt. Muscles adapt quickly to training, but connective tissues like tendons and ligaments take longer. Jumping too quickly into heavy lifting can overload these tissues before they’re ready, setting you up for tendinitis or worse.
The first few months should focus on:
Learning correct movement patterns.
Gradually adding load while staying in control.
Training through a full, comfortable range of motion.
Dial in your technique before chasing numbers. Every rep you do with good form reinforces safe movement patterns. Every rep you do with sloppy form engrains bad habits and increases your injury risk. The goal is technical mastery first, then progressive overload. This way, when the weights do get heavier, your form holds up under pressure. Work to "technical failure" on each set, I.E. the point where you are not confident the next rep will be executed perfectly, rather than just pushing through to hit a set number. We do this in the gym at The BTG all the time. 😉
Focus on consistency, not heroics. You’ll get further by leaving a rep in the tank and showing up tomorrow than by going all-out and missing the next three days from soreness. That said, it IS worth pushing your limits regularly but infrequently (but still being mindful of safety) so that you have a good feel for where those limits really are and don't short-change your progress.
As we explored in Consistency Over Chaos: What Actually Builds Fitness That Lasts, when you can show up and train on the days you feel great AND still show up and do something, even if it’s scaled back, on the days you don’t, you stop starting over. That mindset is even more important in your 40s and beyond as it was in your 20s and 30s.
Keep It: Playing the Long Game
Once you’ve started building strength, the challenge shifts from making initial progress to maintaining it and continuing to make small, steady gains, year after year. This is where so many people go wrong. They get into a cycle of “push hard, burn out, take time off, lose progress, start again,” which becomes harder to recover from as we get older.
Listen to your body. After 40, ignoring early warning signs is a fast track to injury. A slight twinge in your shoulder or a persistent tightness in your lower back isn’t something to “push through” without thought. I encourage clients to treat these signals as useful data, not inconveniences — a cue to modify an exercise, adjust volume or intensity, or focus on mobility and recovery until the issue resolves.
Plan for frequency over exhaustion. The “no pain, no gain” mentality has sidelined more people in their 40s and 50s than it’s helped. Your goal now is to accumulate high-quality training over weeks and months, not to leave the gym destroyed after every session. I often tell people that four to five moderate sessions per week will do far more for you than one or two all-out workouts followed by days of soreness and skipped sessions.
Accept that adaptation is slower. In your 20s, you might have been able to set personal bests every few weeks. Past 40, progress still happens and sometimes it’s even more meaningful, but it often comes from smarter programming, more attention to form, and an understanding of recovery cycles. I’ve seen clients hit lifetime bests well into their 50s, but they did it by playing the long game, not by rushing the process.
In Know When to Push Yourself, we’ve talked before about how pushing harder when you’re already running on empty isn’t a sign of mental toughness — it’s mismanagement. Respect your limits, work within them, and you’ll be able to keep showing up for the work that matters.
Coach JP at 50 doing the Spear Throw at the 2024 Spartan Race Kelowna Ultra
Train for a Complete, Functional Body
Strength after 40 is about more than just muscle. The most capable bodies also have mobility, balance, and power.
Mobility and balance are “use it or lose it” qualities. Training single-leg strength and balance, dynamic direction changes, and coordinated movement builds stability where you need it most. Training controlled, full ranges of motion (ideally with some load) reinforces your body’s ability to move well far more effectively than static stretching alone. This approach builds both usable flexibility and strength through those ranges, making you more resilient in real-world movement.
Explosive power and force absorption are critical. Generating force quickly AND absorbing it safely keeps you agile and injury-resistant. Activities like jumping (focusing on both a powerful take-off and a controlled, shock absorbing landing) and medicine ball throws/catches train both.
Variety with purpose. Changing exercises too often means you never develop skill or efficiency. Never changing them can create overuse issues and boredom. Strike the balance: keep core patterns like squats, hinges, pushes, and pulls, but rotate tools, loads, and tempos.
In Minimum Effective Dose we talked a bit more in detail about how to fit all the crucial aspects of training in, despite the challenges of our busy lives.
What to Skip (and Why)
Some training trends either offer little benefit for the middle-aged body or carry more risk than reward.
Unstable surface training. While UST can have some good application in acute post-rehab scenarios, it's best avoided in your normal day-to-day training. Standing on a BOSU ball to do squats or overhead presses might look impressive, but it rarely transfers to real-world strength. It’s far more common in daily life that YOU are the unstable element, not the ground! Think of carrying a heavy, shifting object, stepping awkwardly off a curb, or other similar scenarios.
Overly ballistic movements without control. Exercises like kipping pull-ups or uncontrolled high-impact plyometrics put a lot of force through joints and connective tissues. For older adults, whose connective tissues are less elastic and take longer to recover, these repeated high-impact, uncontrolled forces can be a recipe for tendon and ligament injuries. Without the time to decelerate and absorb force properly, you end up asking joints and soft tissues to handle loads they’re not conditioned for, which is especially risky if you’re not maintaining strength and mobility in the ranges those movements demand.
Novelty for novelty’s sake. Social media is full of “new” exercises designed to get clicks. Novelty isn’t a training principle, and flashy, nonsensical movements or combinations of movements that look good on Instagram or TikTok don't often translate to meaningful results.
Fuel and Recover Like It Matters (Because It Does)
Training is only part of the equation. Strength after 40 is as much about how you recover as how you lift. These are a few key components to think about alongside your training if you want to make the best possible progress.
Protein intake. Aim for 1.6–2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. For a 75 kg person, that’s 120–165 grams per day. Spread it across meals for better absorption. Adequate protein intake is one of the most effective tools for combating sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. As we get older, our bodies can become less efficient at absorbing and utilising protein (a phenomenon known as anabolic resistance) which means hitting the higher end of that range often becomes even more important.
For many adults over 40, appetite naturally declines, which can unintentionally reduce total protein intake and speed up muscle loss. This is why I often recommend prioritising protein at every meal, making it the anchor around which the rest of your plate is built. By ensuring protein remains a consistent proportion of your daily intake, you support muscle preservation, repair, and growth, even if your overall calorie intake is lower. You can find plenty of ideas to help make this easier in our protein-rich recipes collection.
Sleep quality and quantity. Seven to nine hours per night is ideal, but it’s not just about clocking time in bed, it’s about getting restorative sleep. Sleep is when growth hormone peaks, tissue repair happens, and your nervous system resets. Create a consistent bedtime and wake-up time to stabilise your circadian rhythm. Keep your room cool, dark, and quiet to encourage deeper sleep cycles. Avoid screens and bright lights for at least 30–60 minutes before bed, as they can suppress melatonin production.
A wind-down routine such as light stretching, reading a physical book or non-blue-light-emitting e-reader (NOT a lit screen), or practising slow breathing signals to your body that it’s time to rest. Limiting caffeine intake in the afternoon and avoiding large meals or intense exercise too close to bedtime can also make a big difference in both how quickly you fall asleep and how refreshed you feel in the morning.
Maintenance and recovery practices. Beyond your training sessions, there’s huge value in low-intensity practices that keep your body moving well and help you manage stress. Breathwork can help down-regulate your nervous system, promoting recovery and reducing tension. Self-myofascial release (foam rolling, massage balls, or similar tools) can improve tissue quality, ease soreness, and keep you moving fluidly between workouts.
Gentle recovery activities like walking, easy cycling, or mobility flows encourage blood flow to muscles without adding significant fatigue. These practices aren’t just “extras” you tack on when you have time; they’re an integral part of a sustainable training plan, keeping your body primed to perform week after week.
Concurrent Training: A Complete Fitness Picture
Strength is the backbone, but a well-rounded program also includes:
Steady-state cardio for heart health, circulation, and recovery.
Interval training for cardiovascular capacity and metabolic flexibility.
Mobility work to keep movement fluid and pain-free.
Each supports different aspects of your health — and together they make you more resilient.
Again, Minimum Effective Dose gives you some ideas of what to prioritize and when in order to get the full spectrum of training in each week.
Final Thoughts: Train for the Long Run
Strength after 40 isn’t about chasing gym records — it’s about keeping your body capable, adaptable, and injury-resistant for the decades ahead.
Start where you are, progress with patience, and give as much attention to recovery as you do to your lifting. The reward? A body that can keep up with the life you want to live — now and in the years to come.
If you’d like guidance on how to make this happen, whether it’s building a smart, effective strength program or dialling in your nutrition to support your goals, I’d be happy to help you map it out. Reach out if you’d like to explore working together on your training or nutrition.